I am finding this world of biomechanical Alien exploration with its borderlands of fetishism and eroticism all jolly brilliant, and to the lady who nodded at me with the word Alien, I thank you.
Three versions using the same leather below - one with magnetic fold and lash, one with buckle, one with tie cord.
Themes I've used throughout for inspiration from Alien - black, black, and more black; hard technical costume for military or heavy-use duty; ribs, vertebra and skeletal structures; tendril trails and slinky lines; egg cases and objects held in stasis; tunnelling and worm-like holes, here made through the pages.
In all of the books, the outside cover is both flexible and wrapping so invites involvement round your fingertips, but at the same time it's tough and raw and hard to touch. The nets and silky feel in all the books suggest smooth and beautiful flexibilities, but frayed ends and multiple layers catch your fingers. The transparent fabrics and papers allow you partial views of what lies beneath, between, beyond. The ripple of needle pricks along pages feels like the regular curve of vertebra. And in all three books I've tried to incorporate sounds that are discomforting. Run your fingernails along these nets and hear the scrape of a saw; rub those nets together and maybe something is scuttling between those pages.
Magnets and lash:
Buckle:
Tie cord:
